1. Team: MICHAEL IYANRO CYCLE
Team leader: Michael Iyanro
Team member: Abigail Alabi
Country: NIGERIA

2. EXPERIENCES AND DISCOVERY
Bottom-line Experience:
1.Nigeria, West Africa’s largest country, between thirty-five and fifty percent (35%-50%) of
youths are unemployed. Overall, the youth unemployment rate in Nigeria stands at an
unacceptable level in excess of thirty percent! Already, the social consequence of this
malaise is evident in the crime rate- both domestic and international, as well as the low
economic output of the country with 160 million people and counting, relative to her peers.
While Innovation can provide a fast and cheap route to create wealth, there are no
established support for innovators and entrepreneurs, and where they are present: funding
is lacking. This has led to rising tide of poverty and crime, as increasing numbers of youths
graduating from tertiary institutions are unemployed and poor.
2. The ability to earn an income is the driving force behind health, happiness, and a better
future for the next generation. We believe that in countries where unemployment rates are
sky-high, every lost opportunity to earn an income is unacceptable. In Nigeria, formal work is
scarcely available. Workers rely on informal jobs, which often do not pay a living wage and
are often not stable forms of employment. This lack of opportunity for income keeps workers
trapped in the cycle of poverty. The problem we see is a disconnect in the entire ecosystem
between service providers & customers, especially in the short-term labor market.. In
fact, the only way that people currently find temporary workers is through word of
mouth, relying completely on referrals from family and friends, and sometimes even
disregarding skill sets of the worker. This is where YOUTHNNOVATION HUB comes in.

3. Discovery:
Nigeria as a country is often described as a rich country majority of poor citizens where 50% of the
Citizens live below poverty level. Unemployment has been a problem in Nigeria, especially since
1980, when the nation's economy took a turn for the worse as world petroleum prices tumbled, the
Nigerian currency became devalued, corruption became rampant, and the population of Nigeria
ballooned at a breathtaking pace. The resultant poverty has posed questions about the wisdom of
conventional strategies for national development.
Many decades ago, Nigeria was perceived one of the richest countries in Africa because of her great
petroleum reserves and large population. Ironically, the most dominant feature of the Nigerian
economy is unemployment and poverty. There is a need for a development plan that will revitalize the
economy of Nigeria, and thereby provide relevant strategies for combating unemployment and poverty
in Nigeria.
Effective land tenure reform and provision of training in development of agriculture related industries
suitable for unskilled Nigerians could make agriculture a more viable source of employment
opportunities and building wealth for those citizens. Also, Governmental organizations and landowners
could be encouraged to make land available to poor Nigerians on a more equitable basis for agricultural
related industries, such as farming. Until such occurs, agriculture will continue to be an unviable source
of employment opportunity and poverty alleviation for most Nigerians.
Nigeria has sufficient land mass and labor resources to become a great location for labor-intensive
industries, and thereby provide employment for the masses. Cost cognizant industries could easily be
developed and located in places with the most poverty stricken people in order to take advantage of
low-cost of labor and land, and as a means of economic development.
Nigeria has a total land mass of 923,768 square kilometers, which comprises of 13,000 square
kilometers of water and 910,768 square kilometers of land, however, the climate varies from equatorial
in the south of Nigeria, to tropical in the center, and arid in northern Nigeria. This results in much of the
land not being arable, and such makes the agricultural sector unappealing as a viable source of
employment opportunities for Nigerians. Hence, the country is not as agriculturally blessed, as it would
seem from a review of the pre-oil boom history.
In addition, the estimated population of Nigeria in 2002 was 159,934,911, which makes it difficult for a
significant proportion of such a large population to earn a living by farming in an area of 923,768 square
kilometers. Therefore, land cultivation is not a viable means of providing economic opportunities for
many Nigerians.

4. The oil sector of Nigeria provides 20% of Gross Domestic Product, and 95% of foreign exchange earnings, and about 65% of
budgetary revenues. Other industries in Nigeria include: coal, tin, palm oil, peanuts, cotton, rubber, wood, hides and
skins, textiles, cement, food products, footwear, chemicals, fertilizer, printing, ceramics, and steel, however these industries
have minimal impact on the foreign exchange earnings of Nigeria, because potential for utilization of such industries has not
been maximized.
Another drawback regarding utilizing agriculture as a means of providing employment opportunities for considerable
number of the underprivileged Nigerians is that a great proportion of land in rural Nigeria where agriculture primarily
occurs is not easily accessible or not fully utilizable because such are lineage, sacred land, privately held by large
landowners, etc. In addition, land is usually loaned or rented in rural communities in Nigeria, so many poor rural residents
do not own sufficient land to make farming a profitable undertaking, and do not have the opportunity to accrue capital on
loaned or rented land.
Governmental organizations and businesses in Nigeria are yet to invest in significant amounts in development of non-
petroleum industries in Nigeria, as a strategy for economic development. In addition, much poverty stricken Nigerians lack
skills, knowledge, tools, beliefs, and values to seek employment opportunities in non-petroleum industries.
People who lack skills, knowledge, tools, beliefs, and values to perform financially rewarded activities are not usually
employable. This results in a lack of employment opportunities, as employers tend to locate their businesses where
appropriate human resources are available. The vicious cycle of poverty and unemployment therefore continues unabated.
Provision of employment opportunities to the masses is a means of ensuring participation of all citizens in the national
development process. Lack of employment opportunities for many Nigerians has resulted in large number of Nigerians
living in poverty. In turn, poverty leads to alienation of poor people (who are often rural residents) from political-economic
functioning of their society. This cycle is complete when alienation further decreases these citizens interest in developing
the skills, knowledge, tools, beliefs, and values to perform financially rewarded activities.
Development of varied industries in Nigeria would diversify the country's sources of revenue, and effectively utilize the
abundant labor supply of poverty stricken and unemployed Nigerians, and thereby reduce the reliance of the majority of
Nigerians on oil revenue handouts. Such reliance fosters a culture of dependence on the government and institutionalizes
poverty. In turn, poverty leads to alienation of poor people (who are often rural residents) from the political-economic
functioning of the society. In, summary, effectively decreasing the number of Nigerians, especially rural residents living in
poverty by creating varied industries in Nigeria, would revitalize the Nigerian economy by providing viable options to
combat unemployment and poverty in Nigeria.

5. SOLUTION
SUMMARY:
In order to address these unmet needs, our solution is the “Youthnnovation Hub” that will
bring two basic services into the community:
a)YOUTHNOVATION ACCELERATOR: a Start-Up business accelerator that will draw upon a rich
pipeline of entrepreneurial ideas emerging from higher institutions in Nigeria, and will leverage
access to a network of contacts, space and broadband into fast-paced prototyping and business
development. The Youthnnovation accelerator will mobilize internal and external network to
seed and fund businesses emerging from the platform. Ultimately, the Youthnnovation model
will get entrepreneurs from ideas to funding literally in 6 months! The crucial distinction in the
hub’s incubation model will be as follows: participants will come singly with their various ideas
for high impact entrepreneurship, and leave in groups…of businesses. The hub literarily will
make innovators collaborate by putting premium on team oriented solutions to unique
problems (by “bandstorming”), and the speed of identifying, prototyping and launching these
solutions into revenue generating businesses in exchange for flat 5% equity.
b)YOUTHNOSOURCE: is a basic service of the Youthnovation hub that will provide wages and
meaningful work via the Internet to youth who were previously earning less than a living wage.
Youthnosource will bring technology skills training and paying digital work to poor youth in
developing countries. We will achieve this by connecting youth living off less than $2 a day to
microwork: small, digital tasks taken from a larger project that can be performed using the
Internet. We will pro-vide a fair wage and valu-able job train-ing skills to those previously
excluded from the formal sector. This will enable people to gain skills, earn a living wage and
break the cycle of poverty for themselves and their families.

6. DETAIL DESCRIPTION
a)YOUTHNNOVATION hub is driven by the idea that high impact innovation is what the youths Nigeria require to break
out from the cycle of unemployment, poverty and economic despondency. The Youthnnovation Hub via the
Youthnnovation accelerator will implement a collaborative start-up business incubation model of targeting final year
students in Nigeria with specialized technology training, and moving them from ideas developed at this stage to product
& business development and ultimately funding & operations. That is, upon conclusion of the Technology Training, they
are admitted into a fast paced start-incubation process that takes them from product ideas in Week 1 to Funding in Week
6.
PATHWAYS TO INNOVATION
Youthnnovation Hub will provide five main services to startups and existing entrepreneurs:-
1) Access to full office support
2) Access to business consultants and professionals
3) Access to mentors (Technical and Business mentors)
4) Strategic management Advice
5) Access to funding
Our programs will be divided as follows to meet the various needs of startups and entrepreneurs:
-Short impact Programs: This will cater for entrepreneurs whose need does not include all of the five listed above. They
are:
i. Youthnno Consulting-- Bi-weekly first time complimentary consulting and low-cost follow-ups for start-ups at various
stages of development.
ii. Youthnno Space-This service will help provide business with full office support internet
access, stationeries, classrooms, seminar rooms, workstations, boardrooms e.t.c.
iii. Youthnno pad- This will be a 4 bed, or 3 bedroom apartment. This will be for development lockdowns, in-house
retreats and temporary accommodation for business teams that have such needs.
-Long Impact Programs: This will provide all the five services to the entrepreneurs and startups. The programs here will
include:
i. Youthnno Camp - The pilot phase of the full-blown process will be targeted at higher education teams of student
entrepreneurs wanting to build marketable products, and float a business to monetize such. The Youthnnovation Cycles
will succeed this pilot program, and will expand beyond the higher education demographic.
ii. Youthnno platform - This program will provide established early stage technology entrepreneurs with ongoing project
pursuit, follow-ups and execution support as well as expansion space and network to grow their business.
iii. Youthnno preneure-In-Residence: this will be a one year corporate social responsibility program for entrepreneurs
who are challenged and can exchange their skills to add value to us while they get a wavier on the fees that help them
build their business at no cost.

7. b)YOUTHNOSOURCE: As part of the basic services in the youthnovation hub model, Youthnosource will
provide wages and meaningful work via the Internet to poor youth who were previously earning less than
a living wage. In many developing countries, formal work is scarcely available. Workers rely on informal
jobs, which often do not pay a living wage and are often not stable forms of employment. This lack of
opportunity for income keeps workers trapped in the cycle of poverty.
By working with US- and Europe-based technology and data companies, Youthnosource will identify
projects that can be done via the Internet, such as Internet research, image tagging, or transcription
services. Using Youthnosource’s technology platform, the Youthnovation-Hub projects will be broken down
into small pieces of work, or microwork. Youthnosource will work with in-country partners to recruit youth
formerly earning below a local living wage. These recruits will receive 2-4 weeks of computer-based
training on the Youthnovation-Hub, including English and soft skills, to prepare them for microwork. Once
they finish training and demonstrate proficiency, workers will begin performing microwork, and in turn
begin to earn a living wage.
Youthnosource will bring employment into disadvantaged communities and will allow workers to enter the
formal sector. Youthnosource will enable disadvantaged people to earn wages while building their
confidence and skill set, with the goal of helping to lift them out of poverty permanently because at the
heart of the Youthnnovation model is the need to create an affordable and quick path to innovative
entrepreneurship that maximizes the scale of non-profit techniques, with the efficiency offered by the for-
profit approach to entrepreneurship development; while fostering collaborative partnership to achieve
these ends.
YOUTHNOVATION HUB BUSINESS INCUBATION TARGET
The Youthnovation hub will support the development of new ventures contributing to sustainability.
These may be technology or nontechnology businesses, though the goal is to support 80% high
technology companies in the green tech / clean tech space.

8. Examples of technology businesses:
• Alternative energy companies, dealing with solar, wind, hydro, biomass, geothermal, co-generation, etc. and
related technologies
• Conservation-oriented companies
• Alternative fuels companies
• Recycling and reuse businesses
• Waste treatment and wastewater
• Measurement and metrics related to sustainability
• Hydroponics, greenhouses, and urban agriculture
• Other environmental initiatives
• Nanotechnologies that relate to sustainability
• Green manufacturing companies
• Green building technologies
Non-Technology Businesses:
• Financial and market mechanisms related to sustainability
• Technology transfer processes
• Consulting and service companies supporting sustainability initiatives
• Educational initiatives
• Nonprofits
MILESTONES
6-MONTH MILESTONE
Launch the YOUTHNNOVATION Hub Platform
Task 1
Recruit 4 Universities and Launch Tour Events in each of the Participating Schools
Task 2
Develop an online platform to screen business plans & manage the program
Task 3
Implement Phase 1 of the Program- Award Cash Prizes for Top 3 Ideas in each College

9. 12-MONTH IMPACT MILESTONE
Take 12 University Teams to Funding
Task 1
Implement Phase 2 of the Program- Identify top 12 winning ideas and award
incubation
Task 2
Implement a fast-pace Business Incubation Program for the 12 teams
Task 3
Take the 12 teams to funding at a series of Pitch Events to Local and International
Funders
BARRIERS & HOW WE WOULD OVERCOME
Our greatest barrier to success will be government interference and inadequate
space/funding. We will overcome the first by ensuring we keep the government
agencies abreast of the social benefits of the sector, and by creating an
environment of trust with policy makers. The later issue is an execution
concern, since we believe we provide a market for both entrepreneurs and investors
that seek them; and creating the platform will be profitable in the long term as global
investors are increasingly interested in Africa based start-ups. Our space
(infrastructure) barrier can however be overcome by the help of our friends and well
wishers; organizations like CHALLENGE:FUTURE & CEEMAN that want to partner
with us for change!

10. EVALUATION FACTORS
This project sees the proposed channels as an important tool in the economic
development toolkit of the area that would be a means to create new job
opportunities for area residents, create higher wage jobs, better leverage
intellectual property from the University and other research institutes, contribute
to the growth and success of emerging technology businesses, and as a source
to generate new tax revenue for Nigeria. These factors would provide the long-
term metrics against which to measure the success of the incubator.
EXPECTED IMPACT, RESULT & OUTCOME
In order to achieve maximum impact, our team will be committing minimum of 8
hours daily to our project. Our projected impact in 2-3 years is to have impacted
over 20,000 youths via the Youthnosource, and 1200 youth entrepreneurs via
Youthnovation accelerator, and adding at least 60 great companies to our
portfolio of businesses in the course of doing business, generating over15,000
high paying jobs in the process and creating direct wealth and ownership for up
to 270 people. In addition to this, we plan to develop fledgling initiatives like the
Youthnnovation Africa Incubators Network to impact even more entrepreneurs
through the vision of our partnerships and solutions to concerns surrounding
innovation and their funding in the Africa region. Our immediate goal is to
launch the Youthnovate Business Plan competition and the Youthnosource
platform to scale up our program in the next year, and also to expand our
space/staff to accommodate the increased demand.